TFBT: Human Sacrifice

My friend Maya commented, "I have not come across any theory why societies tend to abandon (human sacrifices) as they progress." 

World-wide many societies ended human sacrifice because;

“Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them”—though they were offered in accordance with the law. Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second. And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." Hebrew 10:8-10

But, why did the Ancient Greeks give it up? In Ancient Greek tradition, a sacrifice is a "diaz"; a community feast. Famously, the Olympian gods objected to eating human flesh at Tantalus' home. (Apollodorus, Bibliotheca E2. 1 - 3 ).

Could the taboo against human sacrifice reflect a trend in divine diet? In the Golden Age the Titans drank wine and ate meat with mortals. But in the continuing effort to separate themselves from mortals the Olympians dined separately from mortals and exclusively on ambrosia and nectar. So much so, that the youngest of the Olympians could not eat meat.

"Next glad-hearted Hermes dragged the rich meats he had prepared and put them on a smooth, flat stone, and divided them into twelve portions distributed by lot, making each portion wholly honorable. Then glorious Hermes longed for the sacrificial meat, for the sweet savor wearied him, god though he was; nevertheless his proud heart was not prevailed upon to devour the flesh" HH to Hermes

Following the gods example, men fasted to be purified for sacred rituals like the Eleusinian Mysteries in honor of Persephone whom like Christ returned from the dead.

If there is any sort of taboo on roast beef how much more so on human flesh?

TFBT:Random Notes and Quotes September III

 The term Japhetic was also applied by William Jones, Rasmus Rask and others to what is now known as the Indo-European language group.

• Sir William Jones in 1786 as a group of related languages consisting of Sanskrit, Latin, Greek, Gothic, ... From the Bible narrative of Noah and his three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japhet, came the name. 
• "japetisk " "Rasmus C. Rask, 1815 
• Leibniz in 1710 proposed the concept of the so-called Japhetic language group, consisting of languages now known as Indo-European, 
  

"God created Eve first, took out her rib and gave her a companion so she wouldn't be lonely."  Norman Lear describing his television series "All That Glitters"

“To stop striving forward is to slide back.”  (Me)

" The idea is thematic to the Iliad that no matter how valuable a given object, nor how much  prestige (timē) attaches to it, a man’s life (ψυχῆς 22.161) is of a different order of  importance altogether. to himself" (Models of Reception in the Divine Audience of the Iliad, Tobias Anthony Myers  

ληϊστοὶ μὲν γάρ τε βόες καὶ ἴφια μῆλα,
κτητοὶ δὲ τρίποδές τε καὶ ἵππων ξανθὰ κάρηνα, 

ἀνδρὸς δὲ ψυχὴ πάλιν ἐλθεῖν οὔτε λεϊστὴ            

For while cattle and fat sheep can be seized,
and tripods and tawny-headed horses can be acquired,
a man’s life cannot be seized so that it comes back again 

                                                Iliad 9.401-409

“The gods’ immortality and easy living make them capable of watching the life-and-death struggles of mortals as one might watch an athletic competition." (Myers referencing pace Bremer 1985 and de Jong 1987: 130-1.)

“The Iliad is a ritual that simultaneously honors Troy in the distant past and wipes it out in the performative moment.”  Myers

“Book 4 (of the Iliad) contains the first representation of the gods as a body observing events at Troy – the first use of the “divine audience” motif. Books 1-3, while they do not yet use the divine audience motif as found dramatically in Book 4, do sometimes present an individual deity in the role of an interested, engaged observer of events at Troy. Strikingly, this observer figure is always Hera. “  Myers

"a burning city looms beyond the poem’s horizon". Myers

"The poet’s choice of Aias signals a shift from the period of Achaean victory to a period of defensive fighting in which Aias will emerge as the crucial figure: the Achaeans’ bulwark against destruction, who is never wounded himself," Myers

TFBT: Why Did the Goddesses Take Up Arms?

 "In the battle (Gigantomachy)... Enceladus fled, but Athena threw on him in his flight the island of Sicily; and she flayed Pallas and used his skin to shield her own body in the fight... Artemis slew Gration. And the Fates, fighting with brazen clubs, killed Agrius and Thoas."  (Apollodorus , The Library 1.6.2)

The Gigantomachy, the war between the Giants and Gods occurred when Gaia, Mother Earth, grew angry at the imprisonment of her son and grandson Titans by the Olympians. What is unique about the Gigantomachy is that it is the first time in the Divine Wars of Greek myth, where goddesses took up arms and actively participated.  The participation of Athena, Artemis, Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos is recognized in literature, but many more goddesses (almost all of them) participated according to sculptural evidence.  So, why did the goddesses participate in this the third Divine War and not the first two?

The first conflict was the Castration of Uranus, presumably involving Uranus, Cronus and all the other male Titans.

 " But these sons whom he begot himself great Heaven used to call Titans (Strainers) in reproach, for he said that they strained and did  a fearful deed, and that vengeance for it would come afterwards." (Hesiod, The Theogony 207)

The second war is the Titanomachy, the war between the Olympians and Titans lead by the sons of Iapetus.  Based on lack of evidence from descriptions of the Titanomachy, Hera's fostering and Pindar Fragment 30¹, Aaron Astma believes that;

"During the Titan-War,  the Titanides (Titanesses) resided in the house of Okeanos along with Hera and the other goddesses." 

So why did the goddesses wait until the third conflict to take up arms?  

• This one was really serious? All hands on deck? 
• Xenia, Warrior Princess, hasn't  been born yet to set the example?  Kidding of course, but there were no humans as we know them until this point. (Men of Cronus' Golden Age didn't reproduce.) 
• Ares and Athena, deities of war hadn't existed until then?
• Is it possible that the abstractions represented by the goddesses didn't  come into play cosmically until after the arrival  of humanity?
• Did the existence of the demi-gods have something to do with the female deities taking up arms?

 

Any ideas out there?

 

1.   "First did the Moirai (Fates) in their golden chariot bring heavenly Themis, wise in counsel, by a gleaming pathway from the springs of Okeanos (Oceanus) to the sacred stair of Olympos, there to be the primal bride of the Saviour Zeus."

 

 

 

TFBT: Sarpedon Versus Hector

I was trying to find some insight in all this, but didn't. The contrast between the decision to let the demi-god Sarpedon and the decision to ket the Hero Hector die;

"Shall we save Sarpedon?" (Book 16)

The son of scheming Kronos looked down upon them in pity and said to Hera who was his wife and sister, “Alas, that it should be the lot of Sarpedon whom I love so dearly to perish by the hand of Patroklos. [435] I am in two minds whether to catch him up out of the fight and set him down safe and sound in the fertile district [dēmos] of Lycia, or to let him now fall by the hand of the son of Menoitios.”

And ox-vision Hera answered, [440] “Most dread son of Kronos, what is this that you are saying? Would you snatch a mortal man, whose doom has long been fated, out of the jaws of death? Do as you will, but we shall not all of us be of your mind. I say further, and lay my saying to your heart, [445] that if you send Sarpedon safely to his own home, some other of the gods will be also wanting to escort his son out of battle, for there are many sons of gods fighting round the city of Troy, and you will make everyone jealous. [450] ...The sire of gods and men assented, but 459 he poured down [kata-kheîn] bloody drops [psiades] to the earth [460] in honor [tīmē] of his son whom Patroklos was about to kill on the fertile plain of Troy far from his home.

 "Shall we save Hector?" (Book 22)

“All the gods watched them, and the sire of gods and men was the first to speak. "Alas,” said he, “my eyes behold a man who is dear to me being pursued round the walls of Troy; my heart is full of pity for Hector, [170] who has burned the thigh-bones of many a heifer in my honor, at one while on the of many-valleyed Ida, and again on the citadel of Troy; and now I see radiant Achilles in full pursuit of him round the city of Priam. What say you? Consider among yourselves [175] and decide whether we shall now save him or let him fall, valiant though he be, before Achilles, son of Peleus.”

Then owl-vision goddess Athena said, “Father, wielder of the lightning, lord of cloud and storm, what mean you? Would you pluck this mortal [180] whose doom has long been decreed out of the jaws of death? Do as you will, but we others shall not be of a mind with you.”And Zeus answered, “My child, Trito-born, take heart. I did not speak in full earnest, and I will let you have your way. [185] Do as your thinking [noos] tells you, without letting up, without hindrance.”Thus did he urge Athena who was already eager, and down she darted from the topmost summits of Olympus.

TFBT: Quotes for September II

"The image conjured up by Zeus of Hera eating the Trojans raw in her rag. His question “what wrongs so great have Priam and his children done to you?” is never answered by Hera. Scholars have seen in this unanswered question a suppression of Hera’s “real” motivation for is one of hyperbolic vengefulness wanting Troy destroyed, namely the Judgment of Paris...Zeus’ question is openly voiced not only on Olympus but also in the setting of the poem’s performance. Raised and left open at a charged moment in the text, the question “what wrongs so great have the Trojans done to you?” is also up for consideration by the poet’s audience."   (Tobias Myers)That means us too!

οἷσιν ἐπὶ Ζεὺς θῆκε κακὸν μόρον, ὡς καὶ ὀπίσσω ἀνθρώποισι πελώμεθ’ ἀοίδιμοι ἐσσομένοισι. – 6.357-58  Upon [Paris and Helen] Zeus has set an evil fate, so that in the future as well we might be song-worthy for the men who are yet to be. 

" He could start a fight in an empty room."  Inspector George Gently

“to move god-like, invisible and invulnerable, through the imaginary space of the field at Troy. “ (Tobias Myers)

Rabel 1997: 38 points out how the perspective of the characters, for whom the warfare has merely whom the war’s depiction is about to begin for the first time in this performance of the Iliad. (Tobias Myers)

“Iris’ call to Helen, “come look!” (δεῦρ’ ἴθι ... ἵνα...ἴδηαι 3.130), is also a call to the poet’s listeners to join the duel’s many audiences: “ ( Tobias Myers)

Sacred Place

• "Hector, Priam's son, and goodly Odysseus   first measured out a space, and thereafter took the lots and shook them in the bronze-wrought helmet, to know which of the twain should first let fly his spear of bronze. And the people made prayer and lifted their hands to the gods. " Tobias Myers   Talk about limning the sacred space, marking the stage for the play within the play. 

• "While the armies are immobile and seated, the actors, Paris and Menelaus, take up arms and enter the middle   It is just at this point that wonder strikes the armies who are looking on   spears are brandished and the first spear-cast is made   The crossing of the boundary, emphasized by ἐγγὺς στήτην διαμετρητῷ ἐνὶ χώρῳ   marks the beginning of the action: it is by their entry into the arena, their separation from the viewers who remain outside, that viewers and actors assume their roles in earnest.(Tobias Myers)
• "κὰδ δ’ ἔθορ’ ἐς μέσσον· θάμβος δ’ ἔχεν εἰσορόωντας Τρῶάς θ’ ἱπποδάμους καὶ ἐϋκνήμιδας Ἀχαιούς·And she (Athena) leapt into the middle, and wonder held those watching – the horse-taming Trojans and the well-greaved Achaeans. – 4.79-80 " the gods never attack one another except within the arena of activity, the Trojan plain"(Tobias Myers)
• οἳ δ’ ἐπεὶ οὖν ἑκάτερθεν ὁμίλου θωρήχθησαν, ἐς μέσον ἀμφοτέρω συνίτην μεμαῶτε μάχεσθαι δεινὸν δερκομένω·12 θάμβος δ’ ἔχε πάντας Ἀχαιούς. – 23.813-15 And when they had then armed on either side of the crowd they both went together into the middle, eager to fight, glancing fiercely – and wonder held all the Achaeans. 

" first (Menelaus and Paris) and third duel (Achilles and Hector)  they occupy much of Book 3 and 22 , respectively and represnt the furst and last combat scenes  of the poem." Tobias Myers

The Iliad’s power depends partly on the fact that in spite of this basic  Achaean orientation it does not demonize the Trojans but instead portrays them more sympathetically than it does the Achaeans. Tobias Myers

"By representing Apollo and Athena as an internal audience in this way, the poet claims for the Iliad the ability to involve a variety of listeners, with conflicting interests and attitudes, in the communal experience of pleasure in listening – and viewing."  So, Myers is saying that Homer or at least his song can seduce the gods?  Similar to Hermes and Argus or Cadmus and Typhon or Myers and his audience?

The poet makes clear that Hector could never keep ahead of him without Apollo’s help .Achilles was famous for being as fast as a horse – for chasing down on foot the mounted Troilus. " (Tobias Myers)

 

TFBT: Graves and the Judgement of Paris

Over at the Kosmos Society  we were discussing some of Robert Graves' theories (The Greek Myths) I made some passing reference to what was really happening at the “Judgement of Paris” according to Graves.  It occurred to me that I should probably explan that comment.

Graves, following Apollodorus 1.6.3 in a myth that seems to be otherwise unknown. Says at  “ Zeus returned to Olympus and, mounted upon a chariot drawn by winged horses, once more pursued Typhon with thunderbolts. Typhon had gone to Mount Nysa, where the Three Fates offered him ephemeral fruits, pretending that these would restore his vigour though, in reality, they doomed him to certain death…(footnote 3) the Cadmeians of Boeotia (Thebans) seem to have been concerned with preserving the Zeus cult. Typhon’s ‘ephemeral fruits’, given him by the Three Fates, appear to be the usual death-apples. In a proto-Hittite version of the myth the serpent Illyunka overcomes the Storm-god and takes away his eyes and heart, which he recovers by stratagem. The Divine Council then call on the goddess Inara to exert vengeance. Illyunka, invited by her to a feast, eats until gorged; when upon she binds him with a cord and he is despatched by the Storm-god.”    (Graves, The Greek Myths, Typhon, e.)

“All the gods brought gifts to the wedding; notably Mother Earth gave Hera a tree with golden apples, which was later guarded by the Hesperides in Hera's orchard on Mount Atlas…(footnote) 5. A hero, as the word indicates, was a sacred king who had been sacrificed to Hera, whose body was safely under the earth, and whose soul had gone to enjoy her paradise at the back of the North Wind. His golden apples, in Greek and Celtic myth, were passports to this paradise.” (Graves, The Greek Myths; Hera and Her Children, b.)

The problem with Graves’ line of logic on golden apples is that many of his arguments are preceded by the phrase; “the misreading of an icon” (Ganymede 1).  So for example “Similarly, the waiting bride has been misread as Eos by a mythographer… This icon would equally illustrate Peleus’s marriage to Thetis.”  (Ganymede 1), “the myth of Arne’s being blinded… is apparently deduced from the familiar icon that yielded the myths of Danaë, Antiope, and the rest. (Sons of Hellen’s. 2) “The anomaly is perhaps due to a misreading of an icon-sequence” (Alope 1).  And these are just a few examples of a phrase.  Even as a child studying Graves in the reference section of my school library I found the phrase suspciously over-used.

So, Graves interpretation of what is really happening in the Judgement of Paris is that a triad of death-goddesses is giving Paris the gold-apple of immortality, his ticket to the Isle of the Blest.  The price of his unwilting fame, is the destruction of his home-land.

TFBT: Quotes for September

 Theogony, Hesiod, "There by the counsel of Zeus who drives the clouds the Titan gods [730] are hidden under misty gloom, in a dank place where are the ends of the huge earth. And they may not go out; for Poseidon fixed gates of bronze upon it, and a wall runs all round it on every side. There Gyes and Cottus and great-souled Obriareus [735] live, trusty warders ". Poseidon built the walls of Troy too (7.451-4)  Hmm

“the time will come when the great enemy of the gods will be let loose and Asgard shall be desolate. This enemy is Loki, the fire-god, whose release just before the coming on of the twilight of the gods is in close agreement with the release of the chained Prometheus, by whom the sway of Zeus is to be brought to an end.” (Cox, George W, 1827-1902. “The mythology of the Aryan nations.”)  I don't know that Zeus' sway comes to an end, but the release of Prometheus does coincide with the pulling of the Cyprian Veil.

"real gods tend to see the divine perspective as characterized by a fundamental lack of seriousness which Reinhardt memorably called sublime frivolity.” Tobias Myers

Zeus does not give any hint to Thetis (or Achilles) that “the gods” do not now represent a perfectly unified front. And after all, what would it have served to give her the whole picture? By giving Thetis a blanket statement that the gods’ response as a group to her son’s behavior is outrage, he emphasizes his own faithfulness to his promise even in the face of what he misleading construes as unanimous opposition; then, by telling her to say to Achilles that “the  gods” as a group are angry,  zeus avoids mentioning the dissenting views, thereby presents the discussion as closed, ruling out, for example, any possibility of appeal by Achilles to some sympathetic deity. Tobias Myers 

"It is notable that, like the Phaeacians and suitors of the Odyssey, the gods are a part of the epic events which absorb their attention. Yet the Phaeacians do not at first realize that the character Odysseus from Demodocus’ songs is among them, any more than the suitors listening to Phemius’ song of Achaean nostos realize that they themselves will soon be slaughtered to a man as part of the most famous instance of the genre."  Tobias Myers

 Like sports fans convinced that if they miss a second of play their team will lose, the poet’s audience is prodded to stay alert by the negative example of Zeus whose team indeed starts losing when he turns his eyes away from Troy (13.1ff), or when he makes love and sleeps afterward (14.153ff), and of Ares whose own son dies when he is not watching (13.521-25). Tobias Myers

 Cf. Clay 2011: 8: “But the pleasure of the internal observer also invites the audience to be entranced by the sheer beauty of the scene and to share momentarily a divine perspective, viewing the Trojan watch fires from afar, where a transient human moment is mirrored in the eternal cosmic phenomena of the heavens. Like the gods, we the audience can witness this interplay of the ephemeral and the timeless, this conversion of the fleeting into the everlasting, that constitutes the transformative power

 Richardson; “Fate is Homer;” 

Mark Edwards remarks that “fate, of course, is the will of the poet, limited by the major features of the traditional legends.” 

"The gods normally descend from Olympus in order to take a hand in the action (at Troy)  all except for Zeus. In mythology Zeus also descends to the mortal world in various guises, but never does so in the Iliad." (  Tobias Myers) Just like he never appears on stage in the tragedy.

“the principle which they appear to hold in common that a god’s wrath against mortals takes precedence over a god’s protection of those same mortals. “  Tobias Myers

 "The one who thinks he loves his misstress because of herself, makes a mistake."  François de La Rochefoucauld  

"if you utter worthy (not worthless)  words, you will be my spokesman.Let this people turn to you  but you must not turn to them."  Jeremiah 15:19

TFBT: Impact of the Iliad on You

I am in the delightful position of re-reading "Models of Reception in the Divine Audience of the Iliad ".  A masterpiece on the topic by Tobias Anthony Myers 

As usual it stirs up many questions.  Let me start with the assumption in my head that causes my confusion.  I assume that the Iliad is the foundation story of the Ancient Greek civilization and Hellenistic Age.  It was performed regularly in Athens before 20,000 friendly faces and presumably at other festivals.  It is conceivable that at aristocratic dinner parties (like the Phaeacians' in the Odyssey ) it was the entertainment after dinner .  It was THE text-book for students; Greek, wannabe Greeks and Romans for centuries. And surely every school boy performed at least the first six lines at his recital, so that mom and dad knew they were getting their money's worth.  In short that every literate person for centuries back then had read or memorized the Iliad, that many, many people heard the Iliad and that virtually everyone knew the story.  Myers comments;

"The poet’s insertion of the truce episode in Book 3, whose terms guarantee friendship thereafter between Trojans and Achaeans (3.94), has implicitly invited his listeners to consider a scenario in which Troy does not fall after all. Zeus now explicitly issues the same invitation to the gods on Olympus: “well!, the city of lord Priam could continue to be inhabited....” (ἤτοι μὲν οἰκέοιτο πόλις Πριάμοιο ἄνακτος 4.18). Both Zeus and the poet thus provide the opportunity for their respective auditors to contemplate the possibility of an early end to the war. The model provided by Zeus within the text raises the possibility that the poet, too, is doing this teasingly – to provoke a response.This is not the first time that the poet has teased his listeners in this way. Agamemnon’s testing of the troops in Book 2 causes a stampede for the ships, which the poet makes vivid and urgent by describing it with the same grand similes and other language normally used to give a sense of magnified scale and significance. He then explicitly invites his audience to imagine the consequences"

My question; is this teasing idea true?  Did the assembled gods and goddesses (some of whom were prophetic) mortal audiences then and now, and literate  people  throughout history ever consider a different ending to the story?  When Zeus suggests altering the story line by saving Sarpedon in book 16 his lovely and loving wife responds 

"439] Then ox-eyed queenly Hera answered him: "Most dread son of Cronos, what a word hast thou said! A man that is mortal, doomed long since by fate, art thou minded to deliver again from dolorous death? Do as thou wilt; but be sure that we other gods assent not all thereto. And another thing will I tell thee, and do thou lay it to heart: if thou send Sarpedon living to his house, bethink thee lest hereafter some other god also be minded to send his own dear son away from the fierce conflict; for many there be fighting around the great city of Priam that are sons of the immortals, and among the gods wilt thou send dread wrath."

I wonder if the chaos and anger that Hera foretells in the realm above would be reflected in the response of the 20,000 should a rhapsodist attempt the non-traditional rescue of Sarpedon.  People don't like their classics fiddled with.  I recall the hail-storm of hatred and vicious criticism that met the recent remake of "The Rocky Horror Picture" even before filming began

So again,  considering the promised wrath of the assembled gods and potentially riotous audiences, are you expected to take serious threats of hypermoraimism in the Iliad? 

 

 

 

TFBT: Quotes August II

"The long paths, the bays offering safe anchorage, the sheer cliffs, and the luxuriant trees" (Od. 13.195–6)

"On the sand I have abandoned my small boat; now with You, I will seek other shores" Ceasreo Gabarain (1936-1991)

“And after the earthquake, a fire…and after the fire a sound of sheer silence.” 1Kings 19:12

"It is astonishing how some men can put themselves on the wrong side of sympathy, almost before uttering twenty words. ". Castle Dor

"This letter he addressed: To the Fairies any where near Lantyan (Cornwall)...and sent it up the kitchen chimney, as he was wont to send to Santa Claus at Christmas". Castle Dor

"there are more trees on Earth than stars in our own Milky Way galaxy. " (September 2015 Nature ,  “Mapping tree density at a global scale” 

"For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable." Romans 11:29

“I will begin with this confession: whatever I have done in the course of my life, whether it be good or evil, has been done freely; I am a free agent.” Casanova, Giacomo. 

“Man is free, but his freedom ceases when he has no faith in it;” Casanova, Giacomo. 

“if you have not done anything worthy of being recorded, at least write something worthy of being read” Casanova, Giacomo. 

Per the traditional aphorism, "absence of evidence is not evidence of absence", positive evidence of this kind is distinct from a lack of evidence or ignorance of that which should have been found already, had it existed. In this regard Irving Copi writes:  "In some circumstances it can be safely assumed that if a certain event had occurred, evidence of it could be discovered by qualified investigators. In such circumstances it is perfectly reasonable to take the absence of proof of its occurrence as positive proof of its non-occurrence."  — Copi, Introduction to Logic (1953), p. 95

Sent from my iPad

Sent from my iPad

TFBT: Odysseus 8.487-491

Demodokos, I admire and pointedly praise you, more than any other human. 488Either the Muse, child of Zeus, taught you, or Apollo. 489 All too well, in accord with its kosmos, do you sing the fate of the Achaeans [490] —all the things the Achaeans did and all the things that were done to them, and they suffered for it— "4. Odyssey 8.487-49-

First I read a paper once on Homeric Reception. The author suggested that in the case of the Iliad, Zeus, Homer and Achilles on occasion all represented the same voice , Zeus as the will of Zeus , Homer singing the Will and Achilles manifesting the will    My analogy is that its a play, achilles is the star, Homer the wrier and director, Zeus the producer with all his extended in the best seats opening night.  Zeus the producer certainly has say in what happens in the production but Achilles as the star on stage that night can turn the plot with a touch to his chin as easily ha mother turned Zeus head. Like wise in the Odysessy; Athena as producer, Odysseus as wrter and director (80% of the story is told by him per McGrath) and the father of Telemachus as start or anyone else he choses to .  So I would suggest that in this case Athena, Odusseus and Demodokos are all the same voice.

Secondly, since Odysseus is the one telling the story (of his odyssey)  80% of the time it is he who in fact is telling the tale of the achaeans 

Finally, if you know Odysseus at all you know that the man he would "admire and pointedly praise...more than any other human. " is himself!  

So on the argument of voice, the fact that Odysseus is the poet supreme poet in this epic and his extreme vavity I am concerned nvinced that the oraise Odysseus give Demodokos is actually self praise.